Archive for November, 2014

Doing digital health right requires expertise in three interdependent disciplines: healthcare, communications, and technology: You need to know the science, the marketing, and the tech—plus understand the unique audience needs and behaviors across each. Otherwise you build a tool that is clinically inaccurate, difficult to understand, or impossible to use.

Half of physicians and extenders said virtual visits could replace more than 10 percent of in-office patient visits, thus giving them more time during the workday, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers survey of 1,000 physicians, nurse practitioners, and PAs.

HIMSS and AVIA recently collaborated to produce the 2013 Healthcare Provider Innovation Survey with select U.S. hospitals, academic medical centers, children’s and ambulatory care centers to understand the current state of innovation within provider organizations. Cost reduction and dedicated funding were among the top innovation initiatives for healthcare providers, according to the survey findings. Shown below is a visual summary of the survey results. via@NewVisionOne

Healthcare social media has become a foundational platform in the battle for brand awareness. By branding across all social media venues, healthcare social media tactics can increase the visibility and awareness of your organization, company or products.

Of course, social media has become an integral part of our lives. On a daily basis, one checks their Facebook, Twitter, Blogger and/or LinkedIn accounts. And these accounts might include links to websites and YouTube. And from there they might be lead back to Twitter and then to a blog. The point being that social media is becoming an integral process and, of course, an important strategy in the development of healthcare social media programs. It is increasingly important to not only have a presence on these social media platforms, but to be branded among all of them. More and more pharma companies and organizations are utilizing healthcare social media in order to reach their audiences that use social media platforms. Healthcare social media can take advantage of branding among all platforms of social media to strengthen their social media presence.

To efficiently run your healthcare social media, it is important to identify what the most relevant information is to your audience. When someone comes to the Facebook page, what are they looking for? How is this different when they go to your Twitter page? Or when they look at your CEO’s LinkedIn profile? Establish what your audience is seeking and then provide the information in a user friendly way. Then create a seamless brand over all social media platforms. Moving from the YouTube channel to the blog to the Facebook page should flow smoothly and be effortless.

There should be design elements that unify each and every platform. And it should be clear that each platform was customized and designed with the user in mind. It is also vital that each platform link to each other. It is not necessary to create these functions or new social media platforms as most social media platforms already have built in ways to make this easy.

In deploying healthcare social media programs, it may also be viable for pharma companies and organizations to have multiple social media platform accounts. For example, your organization might have one twitter account for company generated news and another twitter account specifically for customer service. Likewise, each individual sector of your healthcare organization might have an individual twitter account. Through doing this, you can successfully direct your audience to the information that they want to receive.

Healthcare social media is about engagement; however, it should also be about brand-building.

Enormous technological changes in medicine and healthcare are heading our way. These trends have a variety of stakeholders: patients, medical professionals, researchers, medical students, and consumers. They are important because of the impact they will likely have on all of us at one time or another. To get an overview of the trends in healthcare technology, we turned to Dr. Bertalan Meskó, medical futurist and author of The Guide to the Future of Medicine: Technology and the Human Touch. In it, he identifies several areas that he believes will shape the future of medicine and healthcare for decades to come.

Meskó’s predictions easily fall into two categories. The first group of trends, descried below, involve concepts already underway today, or those that will likely have an impact on us in the near future. (Part 2 of this article discusses a second group of tech trends that are still several years away or in much earlier stages of development).

Gamifying health Games are ubiquitous on our computers and phones, and increasing numbers of them are designed to have a positive impact beyond simply killing time. Combining fun and games into healthcare apps can motivate the patient and collect data needed to make informed decisions on daily activities that contribute to one’s health. “An estimated 50% of patients with chronic diseases do not follow the prescribed treatment,” says Meskó. “Gamified health tracking creates an environment that keeps the patient from straying from the appropriate therapy path.”

Empowered patients Patients will become equal partners with their caregivers. Healthcare is moving beyond the hospital, and shifting towards patient self-knowledge and empowerment. The Internet has led to many people (for better or worse) researching their symptoms and diagnosing and treating themselves. While that extreme should be avoided whenever traditional healthcare providers are available, there’s no way to put the genie back in the bottle in terms of patients educating themselves. Rather, healthcare professionals should embrace the change and guide patients in participating in their own care. New technologies will finally help medical professionals focus more on the patient as a human being instead of spending time hunting down pertinent information. They will be able to do what they do best – provide care with expertise. In turn, patients will get the chance to be equal partners in their healthcare. As Meskó puts it, “Healthcare cannot really advance without physicians letting their patients help themselves.”

Telemedicine and remote care Home healthcare services and innovative technology will allow for doctor-patient connectivity where it had not been previously possible, saving both lives and money. Patient monitoring before, during, and after a procedure can now include autonomous robots, such as iRobot’s RP-VITA.

Re–thinking the medical curriculum Medical schools will prepare future physicians for a world full of e-patients and dazzling technology. It takes many years to go from studying to practicing medicine. During that time, what students are learning is constantly changing in the real world. The old-fashioned textbook is a static learning piece in a dynamic professional field with integrated, innovative technology. Digital classrooms will create new connections between students and healthcare professionals and allow for access to the most current information and resources.

Surgical and humanoid robots Robotic-assisted surgery enhances the skill of the surgeon and allows for less invasive procedures. Advanced robots will be able to perform an operation from continents away, with precision beyond what a surgeon’s hand can do. Robots may never fully take over a surgical room due to their weak versatility and adaptability compared to humans, but they will become much more integrated into surgical teams.

Genomics and truly personalized medicine DNA analysis will become a standard step when prescribing medicine or treatment, to ensure it is personalized and optimized for that particular patient’s metabolic background. This kind of specificity, according to Meskó, “will make it possible to define disease in terms similar to GPS coordinates.”

Body sensors Technology is allowing us to measure critical health parameters in convenient and inexpensive ways. Tiny, wearable, sensors collect data without inferring with our daily lives in order to make better, more informed quantifiable decisions. Electronic clothing paired with sensors is one outlet used to collect such data.

Medical tricorders and portable diagnostics The fictional medical tricorder from Star Trek is soon to be a reality. Diagnostic procedures are shifting towards devices that are portable and able to be performed from home. Medical mobile applications will be prescribed with patient customization. “The smartphone will be the hub of the future of medicine,” says Meskó, “serving as a health-medical dashboard.”

Do-It-Yourself (DIY) biotechnology Cheaper technology and a DIY spirit are generating a new generation of scientists and engineers who see no limitations in research. Community biology labs are popping up around the world, connecting inventors, amateurs, and anyone curious to experiment with equipment and education. The resulting innovation in biotech has the potential for disruptive solutions that will further change the way medicine is practiced.

The 3D printing revolution 3D printers can manufacture medical equipment, prostheses, or even drugs. They will also play a vital role in regenerative medicine, to create tissues with blood vessels, bone, heart valves, ear cartilage, synthetic skin, and even organs. With its increasing affordability and open source engineering, the applications for 3D printing are incredibly vast and beneficial.

Iron Man: powered exoskeletons and prosthetics Exoskeleton suits have enabled partially-paralyzed individuals to walk again. Increasing the precision of motor control and recreating natural sensation will eventually create real-time communication between the prosthetic and the brain. Until then, says Meskó, “The real challenge for companies is to design devices that can almost perfectly mimic the complex movements of hands and legs.”

Patients increasingly turn to the Internet for information on medical conditions, including clinical news and treatment options. In recent years, an online patient community has arisen alongside the rapidly expanding world of social media, or “Web 2.0.” Twitter provides real-time dissemination of news, information, personal accounts and other details via a highly interactive form of social media, and has become an important online tool for patients. This medium is now considered to play an important role in the modern social community of online, “wired” cancer patients.